‘Lost’ creature missing for 55 years had never been photographed — until now. See it
In remote areas of the planet, it’s not surprising that some species may go years without being spotted by the human eye. In some cases, species can remain hidden for decades, prompting researchers to wonder if they still exist at all.
But as human intervention reaches deeper and deeper into these untouched places, discovering lost species has become even more miraculous.
In Papua New Guinea, one of these creatures has been missing from the scientific record for decades, and the animal has never been photographed — until now.
Tom Vierus, a photographer from Fiji, was on a scoping trip to Pomio, an area on the eastern side of the island New Britain, when community members led him into the forest, according to a Sept. 13 news release from the WWF.
Vierus took photos of many different bird species as he navigated the tropical foliage, including shots of a hawk-like bird sitting in the top of a tree, he said.
The bird’s bright red eyes and the orange skin on its face stood out from its gray body and the green landscape. But, it was only when the photo was shown to ornithologists that Vierus understood what he had captured.
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“The last documented scientific record of the species appears to be a July 1969 specimen that is kept in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, USA. While there have been multiple sight-only records in the intervening years, the New Britain Goshawk seems to have eluded photo, sound and specimen documentation for 55 years,” said John Mittermeier, director of the Search for Lost Birds at the American Bird Conservancy.
Goshawks are a species of raptor and are listed as vulnerable with decreasing populations on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, a database that tracks animal population numbers.
“I have discussed this discovery with local residents and leaders in the area where the New Britain Goshawk was photographed. They shared that this species is definitely rare in Pomio,” WWF’s Pomio-based officer Oscar Pileng said. “Some confirmed that this species is not found in coastal areas but only in the hinterlands of Pomio, and is rarely seen. In local languages, the New Britain Goshawk is called ‘keango’ or ‘kulingapa.’”
Papua New Guinea is home to the third-largest tropical forest in the world and thousands of acres of river systems and wetlands, the WWF said. Despite this, there is still a lot to be learned about these environments and the animals that inhabit them.
“There have been very few biodiversity studies in New Britain, and the potential for discovering species new to science is quite high. But it is a race to protect them, with pressures looming large and poverty a reality for many,” Martha Eimba, a landscape manager with WWF-Papua New Guinea, said.
The goshawk is just one of the species that calls this region home, sticking to mountain rainforest environments where it can hunt for insects and other small birds, according to Birds of the World from Cornell University.
“It was such a great surprise to hear that this photo seems to be the first-ever of this ‘lost species’! It is wonderful to see how conservation photography can help in safeguarding areas by documenting the existing biodiversity and also a good reminder of how important visual storytelling is,” Vierus said.
New Britain is the largest island of the Bismarck Archipelago, which in part makes up the nation of Papua New Guinea. The island is off the northern coast of Australia.
This story was originally published September 16, 2024 at 1:10 PM with the headline "‘Lost’ creature missing for 55 years had never been photographed — until now. See it."
